Everyone Is Obsessed With Me

Everyone is obsessed with me

No not me. I mean everyone is obsessed with you, no wait, me. No hang on, it’s you that is obsessed with you. Or are you actually obsessed with me, because that is truly weird. What I’m really trying to say is, everyone is obsessed with I. No that sounds a bit odd, like this BLOG was produced by Sesame Street, ‘Today’s BLOG post was brought you by the letter I and the concept of self.’

Wait, I’ve got it. Oh there I go again, I just mentioned ‘I’ like three times in one sentence.

Everyone is obsessed with himself or herself. With thy ‘self’ (if you were after the biblical translation). There, that’s it. End of BLOG.

Kidding!

We are geared up for a ‘me’ existence. A lot of our motivation in life is fuelled by what we can get out of things, situations and people I’m not sure if it’s our natural default, or if it’s a filter we gravitate towards, but a lot of us are concerned predominantly with, well, us.

You know the ones. People always hunting for a discount so they feel like they are ahead. The culture of ‘what’s in it for me?’ and ‘what’s the catch?’ which is code for ‘what’s in it for you’ which means the other person has already answered the question ‘what in it for me?’ There is a culture of take, of getting, of ‘free sh*t’, of more for less, of entitlement, of gain, of gluttony and this culture is engrained in the concept of self, of us being obsessed with us and getting the most that we can. For ourselves.

We have been bred into a ‘me’ generation. We use ‘I-pads’ and update all of our social media accounts on our ‘I-phones’. We watch other people sitting in their bedrooms talking about themselves on ‘YouTube’, which really is more about me, not you, and God forbid if I didn’t see that You Tube video that ‘everyone’ saw. We are just obsessed with us, aren’t we! Our opinions need to be heard, so we have twitter. Our selfies need to be liked, so we have Instagram. Our life needs to look as perfect as that epic new filter, so our ‘friends’ can see that obviously we are happy, so we keep adding to that News Feed on Facebook.

I see people doing insane things for attention. Everyone wants to start a hash tag that trends, or make a video go viral, or increase their followers or get more retweets or likes. And other than a vacuous sense of validation, I can’t figure out why? Or what box this ticks. And again, it’s all about self.

Share my video, like my tweet, follow me on Instagram.

All for us.

All for our ego?

Our worth?

Just to be straight, this obsession with yourself I am talking about, is fundamentally different to a healthy determination for you to do well in life. Let’s be honest, you are reading the BLOG of somebody who has manifested dream jobs and forged a decade long career in media, which is, apparently quite a tough gig. My fuel isn’t me, my fuel is you, and whom you’ll share this with and how it will impact you and them and hopefully spark a deeper conversation about things that are important.

So back to you. Or I. Or us? Why are some of us out for just us and how do we change this one-dimensional lens that we can get trapped looking through?

I am calling for a new question. Instead of will you follow me? Can we ask each other, what can I do for you? Let’s turn our attention away from ourselves, let’s keep the camera screen facing away from us and see what glory we can capture in others. By opening ourselves up to others, by sharing our gifts, by helping, or not even helping, just asking if anyone needs help, that sense of validation you are jumping up and down and throwing a tantrum to get by being focused on you, will gravitate towards you because you set your focus on others.

It’s one of those back to front universal truths. Set if free, if it’s yours it will come back to you. Which to be completely honest I did do in the late 90s with a pair of Levi’s and well, they never came back to me. If you focus your attention on others, and you will feel a sense of worth that focusing on yourself cannot garner.

Let’s all stop, for a moment, and not think of what we need, what we want even or how we can get it but what we can do for somebody else. Imagine the impact, if our attention focused from getting, to giving.

Our selfishness stems from hurt I believe. He hurt me, so I am going to withdraw. I didn’t get that promotion so I am going to be mole at work. I missed out so I am going to runaway. Don’t shrink back. Have a difference response today. If you didn’t get what you want maybe it’s because it wasn’t meant for you. Maybe there is something bigger. Maybe there is something more precise. Perhaps you have to wait a little longer, your character needs more sharpening, and your strength needs more time to build.

I was once told, you get what you get and you don’t get upset. But I think that’s a load of BS. We should be giving what we give and that’s how we should live.